To restrict or not to restrict: Santa Cruz County water agencies take differing approach

Santa Cruz, Soquel Creek Water District weigh options this month

By
Jessica A. York, Santa Cruz Sentinel

Friday, April 6, 2018

SANTA CRUZ >> Santa Cruz’s reservoir is nearly full and Soquel Creek Water District’s coastal groundwater supplies are at some of the highest levels in the utility’s recorded history.

Yet, both agencies this month are faced with difficult choices in setting usage parameters and associated water supply costs for their customers.

During the recent years of drought, the city of Santa Cruz stood out among water agencies in California for having both some of the toughest water rationing restrictions and some of the highest cutback compliance by customers. Although the city’s major water storage area, the Loch Lomond Reservoir, is nearly full, officials speculate that a second or even third dry winter could mean the reservoir will be drawn down to unsustainably low levels as stream and river water supplies taper off.

In addition to requiring more rainfall to maintain a healthy water storage supply, Santa Cruz also is working with California Department of Fish and Wildlife to reduce the amount of water diverted from North Coast streams and the San Lorenzo River into the reservoir, to protect fish habitat.

On Tuesday night, the Santa Cruz City Council meets with the city Water Commission for a water supply study session, to set the level of the city’s water emergency status. Water Department officials are recommending the council establish a Stage 1 water shortage alert, effective May 1. Stage 1 emergency parameters call for both voluntary and mandatory measures aimed at achieving a 5 percent consumer demand reduction. They primarily serve to focus public attention on the current dry year, highlight the value of water and prevent water use rebound. City officials are recommending waiver of the city’s drought cost recovery fee, seen on customer bills.

“But for the good fortune of several late season storms in March, staff would have been coming forward with a different recommendation to implement the next stage of water restrictions,” a city agenda report states.

DIFFERENT APPROACH

Soquel Creek Water District, which unlike Santa Cruz is dependent wholly on groundwater supplies, has different challenges in its water conservation efforts. District officials are recommending that the board continue operating under the current Stage 3 emergency water usage designation.

Unlike Santa Cruz, which is able to benefit immediately from rainy years, Soquel Creek Water District is more directly impacted by customer water usage and other factors. During the drought and stepped-up water usage restrictions, district officials saw demand drop enough to reduce pumping at some coastal wells while moving to wells further inland. Though officials have long believed that groundwater supplies take time to replenish, they found a different reality play out in 2017, said district General Manager Ron Duncan.

The change is key as the district, along with Central Water District, Santa Cruz County, Santa Cruz and private well owners, have come together to create a long-range plan for conservation of what has been dubbed the Mid-County Groundwater Basin.

Looming as the largest threat to several neighboring underground aquifers is seawater intrusion. Area water supply, officials estimate, has been pumped faster than it can naturally recharge for decades. When freshwater water supplies near the ocean are drawn down too far, nearby saltwater can begin to be sucked in, thereby sullying the drinking water supply.

At its March 20 meeting, the Soquel Creek Water District Board of Directors grappled with the question of whether an ongoing emergency water usage stage has meaning to its customers, or if they have been desensitized by the ongoing water crisis.

The district is considering a continuation of its Stage 3 parameters, calling for customers to scale back water usage to 25 percent below its 2013 average. In the past year, after several years of customer water demand reductions, usage has begun to creep back up — hovering at an average 22 percent below 2013 use, district Conservation and Customer Service Field Manager Shelley Flock said.

AIR OF CRISIS

The district is hoping to create supplemental water supply for its customers, with options ranging from continued conservation and water sharing projects with neighboring water agencies to taking part in a regional desalination plant and building its own water recycling plant.

“At this point, it’s not about how many people are washing their car indiscriminately, or watering their lawns,” board Director Carla Christiansen said on March 20. “It is about our need to project an air of crisis and urgency to get public support for these projects.”

Board member Bruce Jaffe said he did not believe customers knew what stage curtailment the district was currently in, and could use some improved public outreach.

Duncan described the board’s decision as a quandary, musing over what type of message reducing the emergency stage would send to customers.

Board members speaking during last month’s meeting generally seemed to support continuing for another year at Stage 3 water usage and water fees, though a formal vote is not expected until the April 17 meeting.